Girl Cooties

I kissed my son goodnight just now.  And by that, I mean I gathered up all the love I had left in my chest after a long day of fighting a tooth infection after a night of restless sleep, and I offered it to him as if it were a bouquet of fragile lilacs freshly picked from a field untouched by ... wait, in order to be picked, they would have to touched by someone or something: human, machine, cat...  Okay, that doesn't work.  We'll just leave this at I kissed him goodnight.

And in response to my loving gesture, he said "Ew, girl cooties!"

Pause.  Let it sink in.  You here with me now?  Good, let's move forward.  Because this means...

I'm still a girl!  I'm not just an old and moldy mom!  I'm a girl.

Yep, I've still got it.  And I refuse to look at his comment as an insult.  He did smile when he said it.

May you all have cooties, either boy or girl, no matter how tired you are or how long your day was.  Good night!